The Lord has given me an analogy for the birthing process- the space between the womb and the promise. In that space is where work is done, much of what people never see. But you feel it. You feel the birthing pains, the pressure, the breaking and falling off of old things, and the nakedness of vulnerability and looking within. I believe God does His best work in the process. A place so beautifully set apart for you and Him. A place where we find a thread of His goodness even in the hard. See, this process mirrors very similarly the process of birth in the physical. A female has a baby inside of her that is hidden in the womb being nourished and growing, but, then there is a birthing process that ensues to get the baby fully out. In the process of birth, as many women would agree, there is pressure and pains that are necessary to propel the baby out and into the world.
This process is very similar to the birthing process we can experience with God. The space between the womb and the promise. God gives you a promise for the future, but then you go into process. And many times in your process you wonder how what God stated as your promise and what you’re currently facing can at all coincide.
Let’s talk about this process with God. Process for me has looked like a place of much breaking. It’s a messy place where one day I am standing firm on the promises of God and the next I’m crumbling and doubting all He has told me. It’s a place where I feel a physical pain for a spiritual process. Those are my very real and raw places with God.
I believe process is a place where God desires to break old mindsets, change perspectives, and bring places to the surface that need healing and His perspective. The best part about this- He does it all for our good. God wants us to live a life so fully alive and abundant, and when He sees the time fit, He is ready to break off some things that are no longer suiting us and need to go. They need to go because they can’t go with us to the next place we are going. This could look like ways of thinking, perspectives, habits, or people. It’s not because you’re in trouble, its because He loves you.
God has shown me a mirror between the place of process with God and the metamorphosis of a butterfly. God gave me a vision of a butterfly a while back as an image of myself. I didn’t realize then that was the end result for me. God had me research the life cycle of a butterfly. The stage right before a butterfly becomes an adult and gains it’s wings is called the “Pupa Stage”. This is also called “The Transition Stage”. I bet you can guess where I am going with this.
The Pupa Stage is a stage where the butterfly is hidden, but protected, in its Chrysalis. This place where God is working in you is a place of safety. It may seem like God is holding out on you, but, in fact, it’s a place of protection and growth. A promise given too soon, is no promise at all. God desires to bring you to a place where you can receive His promise in fullness. Any promise given too soon could be destructive and harmful to His children, and this is not His heart. He desires to mature you in this time so you can receive the promise in its fullness.
In this stage it may seem as though nothing is happening, but in fact much transformation is happening in the Chrysalis. In this place of process some of the changes that are happening may not be large or be able to be seen from the outside quite yet. God is working in changing the way you think, healing places in your heart, and shifting things in your mind. Although people on the outside can’t see these changes, they are the exact set up for outward change. Soon they will be noticeable.
In this process some things transform and others completely disappear. God desires to change the way you think, see yourself, and Him. But some things may no longer have a place in your life. Some people may no longer be benefiting your life, some habits may have to go, some ways of thinking may need to disappear. But this is all for your benefit and protection.
The transformations happening are the very things needed for the butterflies next season- better eyesight, better smell, etc. This process by God is all for your good. He desires to fully equip you for your next season of life. He desires to strengthen you, give you confidence, and a greater trust in Him. The exact things He is doing in this process are the exact things you need to flourish in your next season.
There is such thing as incomplete metamorphosis. This is where the butterfly is an adult but does not gain it’s wings. Many of us want to dip out on the process of God before it is fully over. I understand this place, as process is hard. But let’s ask God for His supernatural strength to keep going. Let’s gain the fullness of His promise, not partial promise.
God’s heart in the place of process is to give you the abundant life. He wants to fully equip you for the places you are going and prepare you for all He has for you. Let’s open our hands in surrender to the place of process, so that God can do all He wants, and bring us to the place of being mature, complete, and lacking nothing.
James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature, complete, and not lacking anything.”